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DISCHARGE
1 March
An open call for performance work that doesn’t fit elsewhere.
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zack mennell
COMMON HOST
13 - 15 March
A weekend gathering situating ancient folk customs such as mumming in new relation to the post-industrial landscapes of London and Essex .
> full programme info
On 14 March we’ll host contaminated materials, a workshop exploring the performing our difficult histories.
> workshop info
Martin O’Brien
ON DISCIPLINE
11 - 15 May
This intensive workshop looks at discipline in performance making - how commitment, repetition and training can shape the way we work.
> workshop info + booking
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Rage Reactor, zack mennell, DaDaFest International, Bluecoat, 2025. Photos by Tom Horton.
zack mennell
contaminated materials an artist lab exploring performing our difficult historiesSaturday 14 March | Tickets
Safehouse 1&2, Peckham
In this Artist Lab, zack mennell explores how we can transform items, objects and materials which carry negative associations. Using performance art practices, we’ll look at how we can imbue these ‘contaminated materials’ with new meanings that foster recovery and suggest new relationships.
In zack’s own work, they have transformed their correspondence with medical institutions and the Department of Work and Pensions. These documents have been cut-up and reorganised, dissolved in the Thames, and recorded and re-recorded onto cassette tapes until the words disappear.
> Artist Index: zack mennell
What to Expect
You will be invited to bring a ‘contaminated’ item, material or object to work with. We’ll work from the understanding that these objects are imbued with difficult histories, so rather than sharing triggering or traumatic details, the workshop will be grounded in the exploration of our own chosen materials. zack will offer a series of prompts and exercises, asking:What do our contaminated materials do to us and the places we inhabit? How can we shift the power dynamics in these relationships? Can we become object while letting the material become us? At what point does that transformation occur?
How do these relationships to material speak through socio-cultural issues? Can we find ways to make the intense aspects silly and vise versa?
This is a 6 hour session and many of us may be strangers to each other. We’ll speak at the start of the day about how we want to explore and articulate difficulty in this context. This may mean setting your own boundaries, and listening to and respecting those of others in the room.
The idea is to explore the artistic transformation of these ‘contaminated’ materials. As facilitators, we practice compassionately and will hold the day with care but ask that you take ultimate responsibility for your own psychological wellbeing and for the ideas and experiences you bring into the room. When you think about working with ‘contaminated materials’ and difficult histories, we ask that you consider whether it is responsible and safe for you to do so.
If you have any questions about this, please write to us!
Key Info
Saturday 14 March, 10am - 4pmSafehouse 1&2, Copeland Road, Peckham SE15 3SN
The workshop is priced £15 or £12 (concession). concession20 at checkout. No one will be turned away for lack of funds - if price is an issue please contact us.
> book here (£15/£12)
Contact: producing@futureritual.co.uk
Accessibility
The Safehouses are old, imperfect domestic spaces. The venue provide the following access information:While the ground floor, garden and toilet are accessible at Safehouse 1, and at Safehouse 2 the ground floor is accessible, there are steps into the garden. For this reason, the houses are not wheelchair accessible, so we’d recommendthe spaces for people with a high level of mobility.
Floorplans can be viewed online. Our gathering takes place on the ground floor of each building only.
There will be quiet, decompression spaces available.
common host
contaminated materials is presented as part of common host, a weekend programme gathering strange archetypes and odd beings. Convened by zack mennell, the gathering situtates ancient folk customs such as mumming in new relation to the post-industrial landscapes of London and Essex.Drawing in members of zack's artistic community, the programme involves performances, conversation, a workshop and an exhibition. zack will show a new short film, made in collaboration with Baiba Sprance and Marco Berardi.
Friday 13 - Sunday 15 March 2026
Safehouse 1&2, Peckham, SE15 3SN
> zack mennell: common host
(para)site: a discharge of cultural sewage, 2022. Comissioned by Totally Thames Festival and programmed by Deptford X Festival with VSSL studio. Photo by Milo Robinson for Thames Festival Trust